Pile fabric



March 10, 1959 T, JANNEY Em 876,525

PILE FABRIC Filed March 29, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 rMarch lo, 1959 T. T. JANNEY ETAL 7 5 PILE FABRIC Filed March 29, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 PILE FABRIC Thomas T. Janney, Lafayette Hill, and Adolph Klein, 'Cheltenham, Pa., assignors to James Lees and Sons Company, Bridgeport, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application March 29, 1955, Serial No. 497,534

4 Claims. (Cl. 28-78) The present invention relates to pile fabrics, and more particularly to tufted pile fabrics having both cut and uncut pile projections therein.

In conventional tufted fabrics, wherein the pile surface is produced by successive insertions of the pile yarns by a bank of needles, the pile yarn is caught by a latch and held during withdrawal of the needle. The conventional tufting machines produce cut pile fabrics when the latching mechanism is provided with a knife, and uncut pile or loop pile when no knife is present. While cut pile is produced with only one height, pattern mechanisms may be provided to produce varying heights of loop pile. Prior to the present invention, however, it has been impossible to produce a tufted pile fabric having a pattern composed of both loops and cut tufts in one tufting operation.

With the foregoing in mind, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a tufted pile fabric having pattern effects consisting of loop and cut piles.

A further object of the present invention is to produce patterned tufted pile fabrics embodying combinations of cut pile and loop pile wherein either type of pile, or combination thereof, may lie in the same longitudinal or transverse row.

Another object of the present invention is to produce tufted pile fabrics having a pattern of cut and loop pile which is accentuated by a variation in color tone between the cut and loop pile.

These and other objects of the present invention and the various features and details of the construction of the fabric and the method of producing the same, are more fully set forth hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a face view of a pile fabric made in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, showing in broken lines the construction of the carpet in an intermediate stage of production;

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view similar to Fig. 2, but taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an illustration of a machine for performing a preliminary step in the production of a fabric made in accordance with the present invention;

Fig; 5 is an enlarged detail of a portion of the mechanism shown in Fig. 4 and illustrating the product of the step shown in Fig. 4; and,

Fig. 6 is a subsequent step in the production of a fabric made in accordance with the present invention.

Referring now to the drawings, Fig. 1 illustrates a fabric made in accordance with the present invention having loop pile, indicated at Iii, and cut pile indicated at 11. In the present instance, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the cut pile is the same height as the loop pile 10. However, as pointed out more fully below, it is possible to produce cut pile having greater height than the loop pile. As shown in these latter figures, the pile is formed by looping the pile yarns through a solid base fabric 12, the pile yarns being indicated at 13. In the finished atent C product, the back of the base fabric 12 is coated with a settable solution or back sizing (not shown) which firmly anchors the pile yarn 13 to the fabric 12 and provides a suitable friction surface for engaging the floor or other surface on which the fabric ultimately rests.

In the production of the fabric, the first step is the production of a patterned loop pile fabric. Preferably, this step is formed on a conventional pattern tufting machine in which the base fabric 12 is advanced across the bed of a tufting machine 15 having a bank of needles 16 for inserting the pile yarn 13 through the fabric. A pattern mechanism is provided at 17 which controls the amount of yarn 13 fed to the various needles of the machine. As is well known, furnishing a lesser length of yarn than is required to form a loop in one row, causes a loop in the preceding row to shorten. Thus, the pattern mechanism varies the amount of yarn supplied to the individual needles in accordance with a preselected pattern, to thereby produce a pile surface having high loops Ila and low loops 10.

Figure 1 clearly illustrates a preferred form of the fabric produced according to the invention in which the uncut areas 10 and the out areas 11 are arranged in nongeometric fashion, thereby avoiding a geometric repeat.

A succeeding step in the production of the fabric of the present invention is performed by a conventional shearing machine, for example as illustrated in Fig. 6. In this step of the production, the base fabric 12 having loops 10 and 11a is fed across the bed 20 of a shearing machine. A brush 21 operates to brush up any loops which may have fallen over, and a plurality .of rotary blades 22 operates to shear the projecting portions of the loops 11a. The sheared pile portions are carried away by a hood indicated at 23. In the present instance, the blades 22 are set at precisely the level of the low loops 10, so that the high loops 11a are sheared off to form tufts 11 having the same height as the loops 10, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. However, by varying the setting of the blades, it is possible to shear the loops 11a to a higher level than the loops 10, thereby providing a cut pile which projects above the loop pile.

While it is possible to employ dyed yarns in the tufting machine, thereby obviating the necessity for subsequent dyeing, it is preferable to dye the pile yarns after the production of the patterned loop pile fabric. It has been found that by varying the sequence of the shearing and dyeing operations, it is possible to produce different effects in the finished fabric.

In one methodof producing the fabric, the tufted patterned loop pile fabric is produced with undyed yarn in accordance with a predetermined design. The resulting fabric is then dyed in a conventional manner in a suitable dyebeck. The dyed fabric is then sheared, as set forth above to produce a fabric having loops and tufts in accordance with the predetermined design.

This method produces a fabric having a pile surface of a combination of cut and loop piles. The cut pile portions of the surface have a color tone substantially identical to the loop pile surface portion. A slight contrast is provided between the loop pile and the cut pile by reason of the greater reflection of light from the rounded relatively smooth loops of yarn than the rough light-absorbing tufts. This fabric is especially suitable for installations where the color tone is desired to be uniform throughout the surface.

A second method consists of the same steps, but a reversal of the shearing and dyeing steps. In this method, the fabric is tufted from undyed yarn with high and low loops in accordance with a predetermined design. After tufting, the goods are sheared so that the high loops are cut to form tufts having a height substantially equal to that of the low loops. The fabric is then dyed in a conventional manner to a desired color.

The second method produces a fabric having loops and tufts in accordance with the predetermined design. Utilizing this sequence of steps, a difference in color tone is provided between the cut and loop pile. It is believed that this differential in color tone is apparent by reason of the greater penetration of dye-stuff into the cut pile and by reason of the tufts blossoming, or opening up in the dyeing operation. This blossoming not only insures a greater penetration of the dyestulf, but also effects a greater absorption of light by the cut pile in the finished product.

A third method consists of the steps of first producing tufted fabric having a loop pile made in accordance with a predetermined design. After tufting, the goods are sheared to a height slightly greater than the height ofthe low loops. The material is then dyed in a conventional manner, and then again subjected to shearing to a height corresponding with the height of the low loops.

The latter method produces a pile fabric having loops and tufts in accordance with the predetermined design. A pronounced definition of the predetermined design is effected by a distinct contrast in the color tone of the cut and loop pile areas. It is believed that the contrast is provided because the shearing before dyeing insures a full penetration of the dye into the cut pile fabric and 2. A tufted pile fabric comprising a separately-formed self-sustaining ground fabric, and a plurality of pile yarns, each having uniform characteristics throughout and disposed flush against one surface of said ground fabric and having projections passing entirely through said ground fabric and projecting a substantial distance at the other side of said ground fabric to form a raised pile surface, said projections being of substantially equal height and arranged in longitudinal and transverse rows, selected projections in transverse rows being cut pile and the remaining projections being loop pile, and selected projections of one pile yarn in said longitudinal rows being cut pile and the remaining projections of said one pile yarn being loop pile to present a non-geometric pattern of cut and looped pile yarn.

3. A tufted pile fabric comprising a separately-formed self-sustaining ground fabric, and a plurality of pile yarns, each having uniform characteristics throughout and disposed flush against one surface of said ground fabric and by reason of the blossoming of the cut pile. The shearing after dyeing shears the blossomed cut pile to the level of the loop pile, and insures that the cut pile is erect and not turned down to expose the relatively smooth outer surface of the cut pile yarns. Thus, the cut pile area consistsonly of the sheared ends of the cut pile tufts, whereas the loop pile area is composed of the rounded loops of the pile.

Throughout the description of the above methods, we have eliminated the conventional steps after the dyeing operation. The complete process after the dyeing, includes the steps of removing excess moisture by a squeeze roll, face-beating the fabric while wet, drying the fabric, applying back sizing to the fabric, drying the back sizing, and beating the face and the back of the fabric while dry. These steps are conventional to tufted carpet fabrics and will not be described in detail.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been herein illustrated and described, it is not intended to limit the invention to such disclosure, but changes and modifications may be made therein and thereto within the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A tufted pile fabric comprising a separately-formed self-sustaining ground fabric, and a plurality of pile yarns, each having uniform characteristics throughout and disposed flush against one surface of said ground fabric and having projections passing entirely through said ground fabric and projecting a substantial distance at the other side of said ground fabric to form a raised pile surface, said projections being of substantially equal height and arranged in longitudinal and transverse rows, selected projections of one pile yarn in said longitudinal rows being cut pile, and the memaining projections of said one pile yarn being loop pile to present a non-geometric pattern of cut and looped pile yarn.

having projections passing entirely through said ground fabric and projecting a substantial distance at the other side of said ground fabric to form a raised pile surface, saidprojections being of substantially equal height and arranged in longitudinal and transverse rows, selected projections of one pile yarn in said longitudinal rows being cut pile, and the remaining projections of said one pile yarn being loop pile to present a non-geometric pattern of cut and looped pile yarn, said out pile projections having a color tone contrasting with the color tone of the loop pile projections.

4. A tufted pile fabric comprising a separately-formed self-sustaining ground fabric, and a plurality of pile yarns,

' each having uniform characteristics throughout and disposed flush against one surface of said ground fabric and having projections passing entirely through said ground fabric and projecting a substantial distance at the other side of said ground fabric to form a raised pile surface, said projections being of substantially equal height and arranged in longitudinal and transverse rows, selected projections in transverse rows being cut pile and the remaining projections being loop pile, and selected projections of one pile yarn in said longitudinal rows being cut pile and the remaining projections of said one pile yarn being loop pile to present a non-geometric pattern of cut and looped pile yarn, said cut pile projections having a color tone contrasting with the color tone of the loop pile projections.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 605,710 Goodall June 14, 1898 690,912 McCollum Jan. 7, 1902 1,953,044 Cooper Mar. 27, 1934 2,110,867 Castles Mar. 15, 1938 2,293,010 Rice Aug. 11, 1942 2,360,398 Case Oct. 17, 1944 2,410,764 Uihlein Nov. 5, 1946 2,423,606 McCutchen July 8, 1947 2,486,963 Miller Nov. 1, 1949 2,499,406 Miller Mar. 7, 1950 

